Even though I think you've obviously lost contact with the mother-ship I think its worth addressing once again that the budget problems the states are facing don't have anything to do with unions and everything to do with the economic collapse and recession caused by the greed corruption of the private financial sector.

So I think its really worth highlighting a few facts about what's happening in Wisconsin and most other states.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/02/unions_arent_to_blame_for_wisc.html

 

Bullshit.

If you read Walker's State of the State address, you can watch him hide the ball on what he's doing. "Our upcoming budget is built on the premise that we must right size our government," he said. "That means reforming public employee benefits -- as well as reforming entitlement programs and reforming the state’s relationship with local governments." Not a word on his actual proposal, which is to end collective bargaining for benefits.

If all Walker was doing was reforming public employee benefits, I'd have little problem with it. There's too much deferred compensation in public employee packages, and though the blame for that structure lies partially with the government officials and state residents who wanted to pay later for services now, it's true that situations change and unsustainable commitments require reforms. But that's not what Walker is doing. He's attacking the right to bargain collectively -- which is to say, he's attacking the very foundation of labor unions, and of worker power -- and using an economic crisis unions didn't cause, and a budget reversal that Walker himself helped create, to justify it.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/02/unions_arent_to_blame_for_wisc.html

 

Schools are back in session.

And now walker is threatening to lay off 1,500 state employees if his budget is not passed.

The unions and protesters are standing their ground though and apparently picking up support.

 

Thanks you just confirmed what I have said.

 

News Update from Ohio.

If the initial reports coming in from the protests in Ohio are any indication the pro-union supporters are winning the PR war.

That's a direct result of Wisconsin where they just debunked the same false claims made by Governor Walker about the Ohio bill not attacking unions.

But spokesmen for public employee unions are pointing out how many concessions they've already made and that public employees will vote with their feet if they lose their right to collective bargaining.

It looks to me like they are getting their story out first and garnering support in the process.

 

If you think for one second that the conservatives who are financially backing Walker and his ilk are concerned about the well-being of the American people in general, you're sadly mistaken. We've already shown you who they are. You may have had your hands over your eyes at the time, though.

 

Well they are concerned about the .1% that most of them belong to.

That's why they are trying to take their next bonuses out of the pockets of people who work for a living.

 

Hey what do you know the Indiana Democrats have fled their state to keep a similar bill to the Wisconsin bill from passing in Indiana.

This is going to open the first national dialog on unions in a long time and its long over due.

And its good to see public opinion swinging in favor of the public employee unions.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/22/indiana-democrats-flee-state-to-protest-anti-union-bill/

Also Rahm Emanuel says when he's elected mayor of Chicago he does not anticipate any problems with the unions.

 

The unions were very smart to separate the issue of pay and/or benefit concessions from the issue of collective bargaining. That exposed the Republican Party's overreach and exposed their real union-busting agenda for all to see.

As for Rahm Emanuel, they obviously know better than to try this sort of thing in a state with a Democratic governor. I'm not hearing anything about it in California, although I think the public employee unions are going to have to agree to some concessions on benefits.

I also wonder why we're not hearing anything from Texas, which reportedly has a very large deficit.

 

First as for Rahm Emanuel I mostly threw him because he drives the conservatives nuts and will probably be Chicago's mayor for the rest of his life after he wins today.

But on concessions and smart moves by the Unions I watched the Ohio Governor just get hammered on that. He kept screaming the unions needed to make concessions and "managers" need to be in charge of setting their own budgets. No shit the Robber Barons had to do the same thing with their budgets.

Then showed union representatives and all the concessions they were willing to make and then asked the governor why he would not at least talk to the unions about it and he got nailed trying to double talk his way out of that.

PS And the reason we're not hearing form Texas, other than advice from the Texas democrats that left them without a quorum back in the 1990's is because the "Texas Miracle" turned out to be a Texas Bullshit Mirage.

 

Talk about hands over eyes, you have again failed to realize that the folks who have won seats are not the same ones that the real money has put there over the years.

You liberal/progressive types seem to think that the supporters of the Democrats are poor downtrodden working stiffs, nothing could be further from the truth.

You guys have spent the last 6 decades building a cadre of franchised players, first by stealing then borrowing money from one group to give to another, just to buy a vote. You have spent the last 6 decades digging in the roots of labor, forcing industry through blackmail to pay more and more in wages and benefits until the global market past us by.


It's coming home to roost and all of the rhetoric by you and your MAS buddy will not change what is happening, the people are finally wising up.

 

You've reached new heights of delusion with this post, tenguy. Check out who the biggest contributors to candidates were in 2010. Of the top ten, all but three are right-wing conservative groups...and I'm not talking about astroturf groups like the Tea Party. I'm talking about front groups set up by the Koch brothers.

 

And I have to point out again that all this was telegraphed months ago. Its the reason for who got backed and funded, its something the Koch brothers have been preaching for years and its the reason for the invention and funding of the Tea Party itself.

And most definitely the realm of delusional fools.

The Private sector didn't fail. The Private Financial Sector didn't need the biggest tax payer bail out in the world. The greedy and corrupt practices of the private sector didn't cause the recession.

No, it was dedicated public employees and professionals that had the sense to join a union 20 fucking years ago.

 

Check out who the top donors to the Democrats are,

http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topcontribs.php

Of the top ten donors, $36 million to Dems, $4 million to Reps, $33 split close to even.

It is you who are deluded into thinking that the big money goes to the Reps.

 

No shit. The Barack Obama campaign and the democrats were the first time in decades they took in more funds than the Republicans and the trend continues.

The bulk of that came from small individual donations, especially with the Obama Campaign, but unions helped a bunch to get democrats elected and raise funds which is the main reason the conservative/Republican/Tea Baggers want to bust them and get them out of the political picture.

But it does not look like its going to work this time.

 

Good luck with that attitude you can not possibly win.

You guys focus on what you see as bogeymen, OMG, the Koch Brothers, OMG Scott Walker, OMG John Kaisch, OMG Sarah Palin, OMG Glenn Beck, OMG Rush Limbaugh, etc

But in the mean time you are getting your asses kicked by people who have risen above the big government ideal and are fighting back. Ohio is most likely going to pass the "right to work" law, it is the only way they can hope to get businesses to return to their bankrupt state.

You on the other hand want the status quo, keep the unions fighting for more benefits, more inflated wages, all while watching the industries leave.

Really brilliant.

BTW, you might want to read this article on the Koch Brothers, it might (although I highly doubt it) open your eyes.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corne...owever-much-they-might-want-kimberly-o-dennis

Democrats Can’t Blame the Koch Brothers (However Much They Might Want To)

 

OMG eight years of failed polices, a $13 Trillion bail out for our richest segment of the economy, and a great recession and that's the fault of people who work for a living instead of managers.

 

Cause and effect, ain't it a bitch.

The bailout was wasted on idiotic plans that failed miserably, instead of allowing the markets to correct, you guys had to try and force them one more time. Do you really think that GM and Chrysler would have survived without the UAW conceding their stranglehold on them? Do you really think that they will continue to survive if the UAW returns to it's former position of blackmailing them?

BYW, thank you for making a civil post.

 

And you think we're making all this stuff up about the union-busting you people are fixated on. It's comments like this one that reveal your agenda, Walker's agenda, and the GOP's agenda. Said it before, I'll say it again: it's amazing and sad that you seem to think the solution to America's economic woes is for working people to make less money and have fewer benefits.

 

Good God...it's amazing Kimberly Dennis, whoever she is, can speak at all with those two Koch penises inserted in her mouth.

Did she really call their funding of right-wing think tanks "philanthropic"?

Edit: I answered my own question. Kimberly Dennis is the CEO of something called the "Searle Freedom Trust", which I'm willing to bet is largely, if not entirely, funded by the Koch brothers.